Light Sensitivity

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Who here has sensitivity to light? Is this an aspie thing?

When I encounter light sometimes just going outside into normal light triggers my eyes to start watering and they close them selves. I really can't open them. It is like looking at the sun, your eyes just shut and you can't open them.

I always have sunglasses when I drive because I all I need is for my eyes to decide to take a nap while I'm going down the highway lol.

The worst place for this is at the dentist though. They call you back from the waiting room then they have you sit in the chair. They lay you back (which I can't stand) then point that bright light right at your eyes, and say the dentist will be with you in a few minutes. So I just have to lay there with my eyes watering and shutting I probably look like I'm crying lol.

Anyone else have that problem?

Yes, I have the photophobia. Usually I wear my sunglasses or the dentist gives me some dark goggle things when the light's too bright, though.

I was just at the dentist today. They gave me sunglasses to wear. I also close my eyes because it bothers me to have their face right up in my face looking at each other.
I don't think my eyes water in the sun (actually it's possible. I know being in bright sunlight can make me sneeze) but I often wear sunglasses even when it's cloudy. Sometimes I wear sunglasses inside.
I prefer early morning light when it's still pretty dark but there's some light and in the evening when the sun is going down.

I've been known to wear sunglasses while sitting in front of the computer.

The dentist is the worst, isn't it? The light, someone putting their hands in your mouth (and talking to you all the while as if you could answer), and the horrible sounds that the tools make. It's no wonder I haven't been there in years.

I'm pretty sensitive to light, I keep the blinds closed and I don't go outside without sunglasses on.... on the plus side, I really save on my power bill since I don't use many lights in my apartment.

I'm not really looking forward to that ban on incandescent bulbs going into effect, LED's and CFL's are ok for some things, but they flicker and that means they aren't usable for things like my drawing lamp, since the give me a headache after about 10-15 minutes. I guess I should start stocking up on incandescents.

I have problems with fluorescent lighting. The fluorescents in my office at work are permanently switched off, and I rely on natural light, the computer screen, and one indirect light (you cannot see the tube).

At home, I have spot-lights in my study so that they can be turned away to create indirect light.

I'm light sensitive too. To the point where I'm primarily nocturnal. I have chronic migraine though so I assumed it was just photosensitivity due to that, which is common. Not just my eyes, though - I hate light on my skin or anything, and will generally wear hats/sunglasses/tonnes of sun screen. Interesting that many ASD people are similar.

Fluorescent lighting is really doing me in at the moment. Usually I can take it for a short time but I have been having bad sinus pain recently (due to allergies). Now, whenever I'm under the lights at my school I start to feel dizzy and headachy and just really tired. Sometimes I even get nauseous.

When I am not feeling well, bright lights REALLY bother me

In my room I have always kept the lights off, since I was a teenager. My dad used to ask me why I was sitting in the dark all the time but I like it that way. I keep the curtains closed too.

I'm a bit different there. I love to open my blinds on a sunny day and let my room be illuminated. The natural light puts me in a good mood. Just direct light is what does me in.

As for the florescent lights, I see them flickering and my family thinks I am crazy. I don't allow fluorescent lights in my room. Just the good ole fashioned Thomas Edison bulb.

Also I don't know if anyone has ever used those new LED Christmas lights on your tree but they flicker badly. I couldn't even stand to look at our tree. I proved they blink to my family though. I set up my camcorder for 2000FPS and you can clearly see them blink on and off several times a second.

There's something very calming for me about creating a tomb-like atmosphere. It sounds messed up, but one of my favorite things is when it storms outside and my room is dark and cold and I can lay under my electric blanket watching a movie.

The light really does bother my eyes and I really do love sunglasses. I don't have any at the moment though. At the dentist office I just close my eyes while I talk to him about the procedures he's doing. I'm interested in Dentistry, hope to be a Dentist some day.

I like natural light, I just opened my blinds a little while ago. I like sunny weather too, It just bothers my eyes. When I had sunglasses I used to wear them in the house when I had the blinds open.

Sadly, unless the law gets overturned, you won't be able to buy incandescent anymore... maybe we can sue the government to keep to lights.



Same here, there's nothing I love more than curling up in bed and listening to the storm outside.

Adding:

I have a weird unpleasant emotional reaction to being in direct sunlight lately.

Sunlight is so bright I can't deal with it at all without sunglasses and it's still too much even with sunglasses.

Overcast is better, but I still need shades.

If I'm in a dimly lit room, for some reason I end up staring at the lamp - if it has an incandescent bulb. I don't know why this is.

If I'm in a place with fluorescent lights, I don't see them flicker (as some autistic people apparently do?) but they make my eyes hurt and give me a headache. Sunglasses help some, but not completely. When I've worked in fluorescent-lit places I seem to get exhausted very easily - but I was also interacting with people all day, so that seems more likely. Didn't feel great coming home, though.

My sensitivities haven't been consistent. They've been particularly acute lately for the same reasons that I ended up realizing that yes, I really am autistic - constant overstimulation from loud noise and regular shutdowns.

Or hope that use of LED lighting rapidly overtakes those horrible CFL torture devices, with their truly nasty eye-crushing effects on colour and contrast.

I also have issues with bright light. I have to wear sunglasses in the summer, or else I'd be walking around outdoors with my eyes closed. I also have a harder time doing the parking lots in the summer, because the early morning sky seems to shine even brighter because it's more of a whiteish hue.

Oh, I believe you. I've stocked up on those old fashioned bulbs because of that. Almost equally bad as the flickering is the humming the florescent lights give off, well, not really humming, more like, a frequency that's just high enough you can feel/hear it, but not high enough that it seems to bother other people or so that you can explain what the sound is like. Those things really set off my headaches. I also find it the light completely destroys my ability to concentrate. I used to pray the teachers would forget to turn on the light and just use natural light because I'd get so much more done without those infernal things on.

Although one time I found a store that used such horrible florescent lights that I could finally get an NT to look at it and see what I meant. It was a major victory, especially once she commented that now that she'd seen what I meant she couldn't walk past that place any more - the light was just too bad. To this day I use that store to make my point about florescent lights gone bad and most NTs who go there and actually stop to pay attention to it seem to agree that that really is quite horrible.

But yeah, I usually wear sunglasses. One casual set for normal days, one that goes fully around my eyes for very bright days. For my rooms, I like indirect light. I like it bouncing off the walls, not shining right down on me. I also love having a dimmer to control the light level. Another reason that absurd ban on incandescent light bulbs solely for the sake of making their makers more money pisses me off, so many of the bulbs they're selling now you simply can't dim even if you did love cold buzzing blue over-saturated light.